Cultivation help

[arisaema]

I am trying to place a few Primula species in the garden, and would very much appreciate some advice. There's a sloping, north-facing and somewhat shaded border where I was hoping most of them could go, P. melanops, maximowiczii and a couple of Omphalogrammas already grow there and appear to be thriving. The other option is a raised, wet peat bed, but I've yet to make it, and suspect it will fill up pretty fast...

Primula tangutica, P. handeliana, P. calderiana, P. limbata, P. secundiflora, P. sikkimensis and P. heucherifolia should all be ok in the sloping border, right? Would P. parryi, P. deorum, P. poi and P. amethystina ssp. brevifolia also survive there, or will they be better off in the moist peat bed?

What about P. deflexa and watsonii, do they demand rock garden conditions?

Thanks!

[Lesley Cox]

Your conditions are so different from mine that I shouldn't comment but I think that PP. secundiflora, sikkimensis and heucherifolia at least, would be OK on your sloping border. I would expect P. parryi to like an open moist and somewhat gritty place, but if the Omphalogrammas are thriving, most others should be happy there.

Whatever, we'll expect some gorgeous pictures in due course 

[arisaema]

Thank you, Leslie! You're probably right about P. parryi, those in pots are three times the size of those planted in the holding bed... Stinky little things, aren't they?

Any idea what conditions P. poi may prefer?

[Lesley Cox]

I can't find any reference to P. poi and I've never come across that name myself. The nearest would be P. poissonii which would also be happy in the sloping border I should think.

[arisaema]

Sorry, looks like the senior moments have arrived, I ment P. hoi

[Lesley Cox]

Sorry, don't know that one either. Primula World doesn't have a picture of it. Where's that man who lives on top of a limestone hill?

[Lesley Cox]

Arisaema, do you have John Richards' book? I don't so can't look in there.

[rob krejzl]

Lesley,

re P. hoi

Truly a 'little-known plant' if you haven't heard of it. Richards doesn't give cultivation notes, only that it comes from Lixian, west Sichuan, meadows at 3500-4800 metres.

[Lesley Cox]

Which probably means that John hasn't grown it either. Wonder where Arisaema got his?

[arisaema]

Thanks, I have Richards, but as you can tell it wasn't of much help. I got it from a Norwegian nursery as Primula SSSE24, see this thread in the old forum. I could have asked them, but that wouldn't be of much help either as they have a quite different climate up north in coastal Troms.

[Lesley Cox]

The old Forum does look odd, doesn't it, after living with the current model. Does your primula look like that amazing plant John F showed Arisaema?